Ezekiel
34 and 37
The
“good shepherd” imagery in John 10 probably also evokes the Davidic language of
Ezek 34 and 37, especially the gathering of the “one” community under “one
shepherd,” which is common to both. In Ezek 37, the prophetic action of
combining two sticks into one (εις ραβδον μιαν)
represents God’s promise to make the Israelites like one single stick (εις ραβδον μιαν), and this means that the Israelites will be
“one nation” (εθνος εν) with “one prince” (αρχων εις) over them (37:12-22). Back in
Ezek 34, God had promised to provide “one shepherd (ποιμενα ενα), my servant David” (34:23), and
following the stick imagery in Ezek 37:24 he renews this promise that David
would be their singular shepherd (ποιμην εις). The statement by John’s Jesus that “there
shall be one flock and one shepherd (μια ποιμνη,
εις ποιμην)”
in John 10:16 appears to allude to these promises in Ezekiel, especially given
the similar literary settings of the ”scattered” sheep (Ezek 34:5; John 10:12)
and the false shepherds who abandon those sheep to wild animals (Ezek 34:5; 8;
John 10:12-13).
Various
places in non-Christian literature share a similar messianic interpretation of
Ezekiel. Psalms of Solomon 17 probably echoes the depiction in Ezek 34 and 37
of the eschatological David shepherding his flock, not allowing any of them to
languish (Pss. Sol. 17:40; cf. Ezek 34:16), as well as sharing more predictable
(though not common) language of “pasture” (νομη in Pss. Sol. 17:40; cf. Ezek 34:14 [bis], 18
[bis]). There is a possible messianic use of this section of Ezekiel in 4Q504
1-2 IV, 5-8. Very widespread in the Qumran literature is the designation for
the messiah as “the prince” (nsy’; cf. nsy’ in Ezek 34:24;
37:25): the phrase “the prince of the (whole) congregation” appears numerous
times (CD VII, 19-20; 4Q266 3 III, 21; 1Q28b III, 20; 1QM V, 1; 4Q285 6 and 4
II, VI, X; 5 IV; 4Q376 1 III, 1). Ezekiel 37 is also interpreted messianically
in the Talmud (b. Sanh. 98b), as well as among later rabbis. It is notable that
the good shepherd pericope (John 10:1-21) is followed immediately by the
question of Jesus’s messianic identity (10:22-24). (Simon Gathercole, The
Gospel and the Gospels: Christian Proclamation and Early Jesus Books [Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2022], 239-40)
